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Pop radio along with Hot AC/AC in the early 2010s...why such a shift from the previous decade?

tall_guy1

tall_guy1

I am still curious about the massive shifts in CHR, Hot AC, and AC at the turn of the 2010s. I remember things like Lady Gaga, Kesha, and Taio Cruz being big on CHR and then gradually crossing over to Hot AC and even AC. Were the testing for that through the roof? I remember rock bands like Daughtry and The Fray diminishing during this time. It seems like nothing like this has happened since and there haven't been any massive shifts since then, but was curious what was going on then?
 
vw86 said:
The gap between CHR and Hot AC narrowed a *lot* in the early 2010s. Modern day AC, to me, is the Hot AC of the late 90s and early 2000s.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I do remember that -- there were several years where the current music charts for CHR and Hot AC overlapped far more than they did prior to about 2010, but they started diverging again a few years later. And while I recognize that this is the subjective opinion of someone who was already outside the demographic target for either format, but it also seemed like it was a time of some very good, interesting music for both formats.

But regarding those "massive shifts", I don't think that is unusual. Top 40/CHR has gone through several massive (and fairly abrupt) shifts through the years. I think of the first British invasion that hit in 1964, and how different Top 40 sounded a couple years prior to that shift and a couple years after. Then there was the abrupt death of disco on the radio in 1979 that led to a couple years of ballad-heavy Top 40 radio, before another boom in pop music hit around 1982. Top 40 radio sounded very different in 1982 versus what it sounded like in 1980. And, in turn, 1980 sounded very different from 1978. Then there was a short-lived boom in rap music on Top 40 at the end of the 80s that stalled out and led to another era of ballad-heavy Top 40 radio in the early 90s.

That's the nature of Top 40 -- it changes a lot. If anything, I suspect it has been slower to change in recent years than it was in the past.

As for Hot AC and AC, those formats are naturally going to evolve behind Top 40, since the Hot AC and AC listener is typically going to be folks who aged out of Top 40.
 


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